Parents' Perspectives on Early College Entrance for Profoundly Gifted Children: Readiness Issues and First College Class Options

Readiness Issues and First College Class Options

Should my profoundly gifted child take college classes? While the research is very clear about the benefits of radical acceleration for the profoundly gifted child, there remain many nagging questions that may confuse parents facing this hurdle. Raising these children can be a daily exercise in frustration, challenge, and most of all, wonder.

Nowhere is this struggle more obvious than in the quest for appropriate educational options for our kids. College for a ten-year-old? You've gotta be kidding! They will call us "pushy parents" for sure. But, do we really have a choice? Intellectually curious, highly abstract, emotionally sensitive, and driven by perfectionism, profoundly gifted children are more appropriately defined by their mental age rather than their chronological age. In the keynote address titled, "From 'The Saddest Sound' to the D Major Chord: The Gift of Accelerated Progression," Miraca Gross states, "In children and adolescents, emotional maturity is more closely related to mental age than to chronological age. . .intellectually gifted children are characterized by advanced affective (as well as cognitive) development." (Gross, 1999)

While IQ testing is only one way of describing a highly gifted child's uniqueness, it serves the purpose of demonstrating the discrepancy between chronological age and mental age. The highly gifted ten-year-old (IQ of 160) is mentally 16 years old, and the same child, if profoundly gifted (IQ above 180), is mentally at least 18 years old. Some have lovingly dubbed these exceptional children "chronologically challenged" when describing the asynchronous development of a ten-year-old who thinks like a young adult.

If these children are so cognitively mature, it makes sense to assume they are capable of subject mastery commensurate with such maturity. Indeed, the legendary researcher and author of the book, Children Above 180 IQ, wrote, "A child of 170 IQ can do all the studies that are at present required of him, with top 'marks' in about one fourth the time he is compelled to spend at school." (Hollingworth, 1926, page 287)

The average child spends 13 years in primary and secondary school, culminating with graduation at the ages of 17 and 18 years old. The profoundly gifted child is capable of finishing high school between the ages of 7 and 11 due to ripping through the K-12 curriculum or even skipping entire grade levels, and therefore parents may find their profoundly gifted children are ready to begin college classes.

For some of the parents interviewed for this article, this readiness was evidenced by their child's deep dissatisfaction and boredom with his academic work. Some profoundly gifted children demonstrate their distress by developing disturbing behavior such as talk of failure, depression, or even suicide.

Jill tells of her conclusive proof of her son's need for more challenging academic work, "Peter underwent three major IQ or achievement assessments between the ages of 4 and 7. Each report found that Peter did exceptionally well on difficult tasks, and exceptionally poor on easy tasks, due to a lack of interest. The final evaluation from the neuropsychologist expressly stated, 'Failure to place Peter at his academic level was abusive and emotionally damaging.'"

Beverly, mother of home schooled Conner who is now a sophomore honors student at a large state university at the age of 11, says, "We ended up spending too much time going over dull, repetitive material that Conner should have skipped because he already KNEW the material. He was bored, but wouldn't tell me that in plain language. Instead, when he was 6, he would do his math problems backwards or upside down...just to try to make it interesting for himself! I was a nervous wreck wondering if these were signs of those infamous "holes" everyone kept warning me about! Nope, just signs of extreme BOREDOM!!! We started skipping material when I finally caught on."

Deeply compelled to learn and grow intellectually, profoundly gifted children may feel stymied by an academic program that shackles them to review previously mastered material or shallow exploration of a subject. Some of these children seem to know that they need an academic challenge as much as they need air to breathe.

Rose Marie, the parent of 9 year-old Tom, offers this, "My advice would be to allow your child to explore to his heart's content and let him take the lead on what level of information he is processing and playing with. It took us a few years to follow that advice with our son. . . He requested taking college engineering and math classes when he was 6 years old. This was thanks to some friends who felt he would enjoy their old college and engineering textbooks and gave them to him, which had him questioning why he should have to work in 4th grade books where he felt he wasn't learning much of anything new."

Veterans of the early college entrance gauntlet all experienced the same doubt and confusion, and ultimately asked themselves the same questions regarding college for their children. While the legion of early college options can be mind-boggling, this article focuses exclusively on profoundly gifted children attending a local community college or university under the close supervision of their parents. (Highly gifted children enrolled full time in special Early Entrance Programs or regular residential colleges far from home may find themselves facing problems and issues not addressed by this article.)

I have garnered the real-life stories of parents with highly gifted children across the country, and offer their words as support, encouragement, and validation for the sometimes quixotic experiences you face as you raise your profoundly gifted child.

How Do We Know He is Ready?

The negative messages we receive from society really prey upon our confidence in our children. We know they are smart, process information differently than other kids, and pace restlessly for new information to learn. Yet, they can seem more different than smart to teachers, principals, program directors, and other adults-in-charge. These adults, in turn, may present us with all the reasons why our children are not ready for a leap like college...and we may vacillate in the face of their objections.

Kelli describes this tremulousness perfectly, "I guess the fear comes from the fact that I am having such an issue with educators to skip an obviously competent child one grade. How will I ever convince a high school or college that my 10-year-old really needs to be enrolled?"

To address some of the most pressing "readiness" concerns faced by parents considering early college entrance for their profoundly gifted children, I offer five subjects for your consideration: examining the holes in subject matter mastery, socializing in college, taking notes and writing skills, organizing schedules, and exploring adult themes in course content.

• What About The "Holes" in His Sequential Subject Matter Mastery?
  

  Proponents of sequential subject mastery progression may contend with your child's ability to comprehend complex concepts. When our son, Octavian, was nine he enjoyed reading about physics through the work of Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman. I was shocked by the number of adults who were unwilling to believe that he understood the books without a foundation in algebra or calculus.

  We faced early college classes for Octavian with trepidation because he had never had any math higher than pre-algebra or any formal English grammar. Yet, he understood Feynman well enough to discuss those books with physicists. Many parents experience this confusing incongruity in highly gifted children. Jill says, "My son has shown classic examples of what Martha Morelock calls 'cognitive leaps,' which she says are inextricably linked to how a profoundly gifted kid learns. We thought that his verbal skills were moderately behind his math skills, UNTIL he took his first English class at age 11. My explanation for why his verbal SAT-I jumped 230 points after he had spent a month in that class is that he had not been ruminating about English-related things before, but that the class started him thinking about such things."

  Some parents of these amazing kids say, "Holes? What holes?" Rose Marie's son had never studied any math higher than Algebra I formally, yet tested into calculus and received an A in the class. He also performed well in a pre-med biology class with neither of the prerequisite science courses, biology nor chemistry.

  How is it possible for a child to understand a subject that he has never studied? Doesn't such a feat defy all the collective academic wisdom cherished by today's schools?

  Jill, mother of a profoundly gifted young man in college, believes, "PG (profoundly gifted) brains make connections where no one else perceives connections; or maybe it is more accurate to say that PG brains do not separate information that most others perceive as discrete information. It is simply a matter of bringing all the many bits of understanding to the top and suggesting some kind of order to them that allows the PG kid to suddenly leap tall buildings in a single bound - with their brains."

  Helene's daughter, Sasha, began attending college at 11 years old. True to form, Sasha simply picked up the skills for academic achievement as she went along. Helene writes, "My kid is going to college to pursue her own interests. If and when she perceives a need to take a course in something that she's not interested in, she certainly has all the academic skills under her belt already to do well in whatever she desires. Knowledge isn't really a collection of memorized factoids. Knowledge is the ability to look at the world in a particular way and know how to find solutions to problems, with whatever resources are called for."

  Maria Droujkova, the webmaster of www.naturalmath.com, describes the unusual abilities of highly gifted children and adults, whom she has lovingly dubbed "learning geniuses," "The more a learning genius develops, the better he is able to learn everything, including how to learn. Learning geniuses have highly structured thinking and 'data storage and retrieval' systems in the brain. Of course, every single one of them may use a different structure. When a genius starts to learn something new, the structure helps him to efficiently answer questions of the sort:

  • What are the most important sides of the new concepts?
  • How are these new concepts connected to the things I already know?
  • Can I generalize the new information?
  • Can I find particular examples?"

  The structure means that the learning genius uses data and resources more efficiently. Learning geniuses operate on meta-levels. This means that they immediately see the generalizations of the new concepts they study, and their connections with other concepts. Adept learners apply their knowledge and understanding of general structures to every new topic they learn. Speaking in the language of mathematics, learning geniuses use algebra to learn arithmetic. Formulating clear and exact local, or tactical goals of learning, and finding efficient ways to achieve these goals, is a trademark of many geniuses. Often without giving much specific attention to it, a successful learner will answer the questions such as the following somewhere early on the way to accomplishing a task:

  • What is the goal of this task?
  • What are the key elements on the way to the goal?
  • Is the task connected with anything I have done or seen before?
  • What are the best tools for the task?

  Learning geniuses exercise their skills, but many of them tend to avoid repetitious tasks. They seem to prefer exercises of ever-increasing difficulty and with a wide variety.

  Jill tells of 2.5-year-old Peter who, after gazing at a MasterCard logo, said, "Red minus orange equals negative yellow." Following his statement, his daddy asked him if he understood what a negative number was, and Peter explained that if he went to the toy store and had no money but asked to borrow $20 and spent it, he would then have negative twenty dollars....

  "His first formal math class was honors pre-calculus in high school (age 8), followed by AP Calculus BC at nine. Did all the other stuff appear in the 'normal' order? Darned if I know! He just swallowed it all whole!" she said.

  Can we grow to trust the fact that our children learn in ways that sometimes defy explanation? Whether your child grasps concepts never before encountered or has completed so much of primary and secondary school that little is left for him to accomplish, your profoundly gifted child will enter the college classroom ripe for subject mastery.

• Socialization: How Will Your Ten-Year-Old Interact With College Students?
  

  This is one of the first questions on every parent's mind. The naysayers point out the fact that your child is, after all, a child. Somehow the uninitiated believe that a child, regardless of intelligence, has no place on a college campus.

  When we attempted to sign Octavian up for World Civilizations at our local university, the admissions department explained their new policy regarding young children. Some of their professors were uncomfortable teaching "children," and they refused to do so. Expressing their ignorance of the characteristics of profoundly gifted children, these professors believed that "teaching children" would require more hand holding, unusual accommodations, and corrections for disruptive classroom conduct. I explained to the admissions director that my son was very conscientious, dutiful, and serious about his work. I explained to her that of all the students in the class, my son was most likely to do the assignments, care about his grades, participate and excel. She replied that she and the others in the admissions department had seen enough gifted homeschooled children applying early to know that such children are model students. She explained that her hands were tied by the professors' decision.

  Once again, we bump into others' ignorance about our kids. I too, used to be ignorant to some of the key characteristics of profound giftedness. For many years I believed that my son was simply an odd child who happened to be very bright. Now, I understand that profoundly gifted people possess a constellation of qualities that make them entirely different from the general public. Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, Psy.D, writes of this difference, "The promise of high potential and creative intelligence is accompanied by a specific set of personality traits and inner processes-not simply more of some attribute, but an altogether different manner of thinking and experiencing." (Jacobsen, 1999)

  This "different manner of thinking and experiencing" is what makes the highly gifted child able to enter the college campus on equal footing with the other students. Granted, the ten-year-old profoundly gifted child is not prepared to deal with adult social issues, but such interaction can be easily avoided. Indeed, the biggest problem surrounding the fledgling college student may be allaying his varied and sometimes non-specific fears about college. Perfectionism and the "imposter syndrome" (a crippling fear of inadequacy common in the highly gifted) may double-team your youngster while he contemplates his first class.

  Beverly tells of her son's fears, "When we first enrolled Conner in college at age 9, we started with just one class to make sure the transition was an easy one for him. He was terrified. He wasn't sure how he was going to be received. He was afraid everyone would just stare at him in class (they did for the first few weeks...) and that they would pick on him (they never did...). He was worried that he just wouldn't fit in with students that much older than himself. All his worries were for naught. Yes, they did stare at a 9 year-old being in the class, and yes, it took a few weeks for them to realize he really did belong there, but once they did, they accepted him fully and with arms opened wide. They even elected him Treasurer of the Spanish Club that semester! That did wonders to help Conner feel more accepted and secure. Now, he couldn't imagine being in any other situation and being happy. Even his friends who are gifted and the same age wish they could follow suit and avoid the problems they find in their traditional school track."

  Harkening back to the original assertion that profoundly gifted children are a breed apart, the issue of socialization touches that truth as much as any other aspect of giftedness. The child-who-thinks-like-an-adult often prefers adults for friends. Stephanie Tolan, respected author and mother of a profoundly gifted child, writes, "Highly gifted children may have trouble establishing fulfilling friendships with people of their own age when there are few or no other highly gifted children with whom to interact. For most highly gifted children, social relationships with age peers necessitate a constant monitoring of thoughts, words, and behavior." (Tolan, 1990)

  Leta Hollingworth, herself a highly gifted woman, wrote, "But those of 170 IQ and beyond are too intelligent to be understood by the general run of persons with whom they make contact." (Hollingworth, 1926)

  For the profoundly gifted public or private school child, the "general run of persons" is likely an age-peer. How many intellectual peers will your child encounter in his grade if people of his intellectual capacity only appear at a ratio of fewer than 1 in 10,000? And, while he is not likely to find many more persons with his intellectual capacity at university, he will at least find others who can converse with him about the sorts of things that interest him, a feat not possible for his less intelligent age-mates.

  Of course, while the academic environment may provide intellectual peers for our unusual kids, the child's specific personality type will dictate, to a certain extent, their interactions with other students. Is your child a gregarious extrovert or a quiet introvert? Depending on the answer, your child's social college experience will vary.

  Helene says, "My daughter has never had so many friends in her life as she has now, since she's been attending a local college. My daughter has found lots of kindred spirits and fellow animal lovers in their Vet Tech program. Also in the Biology/Biotech classes. Many of the students there are not your post-high school crowd. Many already have bachelor's and master's degrees and have come back for specialized training or to do the basic sciences that are prerequisites for Vet/Medical school. So many of my kid's friends are in their 30's and one is 40! They're wonderful friends! Great interesting people who are, in turn, very fond of my daughter. These are real friendships!"

  Many parents find that their profoundly gifted children blossom socially in college. For the first time, these children are able to befriend people interested in their favorite subjects.

  "There is a considerable bank of research evidence which suggests that not only are the academic achievements of early college entrants superior to those of regular college students and equally gifted students who did not enter early (Janos & Robinson, 1985b: Brody, Assouline & Stanley, 1990), but also that the experience of early entrance has no negative effects on, but rather enhances, the social and emotional adjustment of accelerants (Brody & Benbow, 1987; Noble & Drummond, 1992).” (Gross, 1994)

  Beverly uses the term "social butterfly" when describing her son, Conner. She says Conner is an extrovert, but she still used specific strategies for acclimating him to the college social scene. "I networked Conner with other students through campus clubs the first semester he was taking courses. His first class at the community college when he was nine was a second year Spanish class. That semester he joined the Spanish club and was elected treasurer. He loved it!"

  Rose Marie tells of her extroverted son's antics that won him friends all across the campus. "He seems to magically find something to converse about with everyone. Which reminds me, he started off his college experience doing magic tricks for students in his biology class (while waiting for the lecture hall doors to open) and the cafeteria staff, which went over very well. In addition to getting along well with fellow students (many of whom he has never had a class with, but just met on campus in other ways, like when he won 3rd place in a comedy contest on campus one night), he gets along well with quite a few professors, who often come sit with our son in the cafeteria and spend quite awhile chatting about things like the book Rocket Boys or computers or whatever."

  Certainly, not all profoundly gifted children are quite as extroverted. In fact, the opposite is more common. Our son almost never spoke to other students while on campus. When asked why he didn't engage them in conversation, he responded, "What would I want to discuss with students who can be overheard discussing the previous night's party? I don't find them very interesting."

  Such disinterest notwithstanding, his ability to discuss course content, term papers, goals, and other specific subjects with students or his professor was never in question. Octavian, able to converse with anyone from a position of self-confidence, simply did not find any fellow students intriguing enough to befriend. We hope that more challenging classes will afford him the opportunity to meet students who are as dedicated to the subject as he is. Maybe honors classes? Maybe graduate level classes? Who knows?

• What About Note-Taking and Hand-Writing Skills?
  

  Does your profoundly gifted child hate to write? If so, you are in good company. Many highly gifted children experience frustration with the physical act of writing that they seem to have a predilection for avoiding it.

  Different children demonstrate different approaches to the challenges they face when they write. Octavian diligently learned calligraphy when he was seven and eight, eventually developing a lovely hand. However, by the time he was eleven, his handwriting looked like chicken scratch. I believe he applied himself to mastering the aesthetically pleasing artistic work of calligraphy, with little attendant concern for writing as a communication tool. Once he began writing for writing's sake, he abandoned his art form in order to write more quickly and sank into the abyss of bad handwriting. We worried that his professor would not be able to decipher his almost illegible writing, but the A's and B's on all of his exams proved otherwise.

  Other profoundly gifted children NEVER enjoy writing. Jill tells of Peter, who, "dislikes the physical process of writing, always has and always will. If he is required to handwrite, he will put down the minimum he can get away with."

  Parents worry that this hand-writing phobia will translate into failure in college classes, yet many options exist for those truly averse. Some of the tricks of the trade include the following: one child's teacher instructed another student to carbon copy their notes for him, another teacher allowed keyboarding and the use of palm pilots for note taking (palm pilots utilize a type of short-hand), and one child's teacher would review his tests before the end of class and ask him to verbally elucidate an answer she felt was less than what he knew.

  Some parents limit the number of classes taken by their child until the child's physical skills catch up with his mental ones. Leila, mom to an extraordinary child named Zane, says, "Zane started taking classes at the college when he was five years old. The asynchrony of his physical development versus his mental abilities slowed him down in some of the classes. The math classes required him to do so much writing in class and for homework, that one 5 unit semester with computers and other individualized classes was enough."

  We found it useful for Octavian to tape all of his lectures. Recently, I enjoyed reading of another highly gifted youngster utilizing the same technique in a Huntsville Times article, ". . .after a long day of classes [Ben] will gather his books, climb into [his grandma's] car and take control of the radio. Ben has peculiar taste in cassette tapes. He likes to cruise home to lectures he just recorded in class."

  As a matter of fact, some profoundly gifted children may not need to take notes at all. Rose Marie reports that her son, Tom, "usually opts not to take any, and so far we haven't seen where lacking notes has affected his learning."

  Auditory learners actually learn more information delivered verbally than in print, and these children may simply listen and still ace their tests with ease. Helene's daughter did the same, "When Sasha took her first Biology class she was so thrilled and amazed at the wonderful experience that she never bothered to take notes. She remembered it all in her head. Out of a class of about 100 students, Sasha got the top grade-998 out of 1000 total points."

  The profoundly gifted child is so driven by their internal perfectionism that they will rarely need to be coached to do what is necessary for them to excel. These kids thrive on challenge and the acquisition of knowledge. They will rise to the occasion unless hampered by an attendant disability that prevents them from doing so, and even still may compensate in some way that enables them to outperform everyone in class.

  Helene's feelings about her daughter's note-taking strategies reflect her trust in her daughter's abilities, "How she takes notes or not, is her concern. She knows what's expected on exams so she performs accordingly. In anatomy and physiology, rather than take notes in the notebook, she just took them in the margins of the text and on the textbook figures. One of her fellow students taught her about '3x5' flash cards. So now Sasha likes to make flash cards of salient facts. And this also helps her fellow students who love to share her flash cards and study together."

  I was amazed when Octavian, after seven years of unschooling, took copious notes from the first day of class in Latin Literature. He did not seem to be hampered at all by the fact that he had never taken notes in a classroom before. I laughed when he observed that the girls were the only ones taking more notes than him! Another unschooling parent, Helene, found that her child learned to take notes by doing it, without having been taught. She remembers, "I never taught her any of these skills. She just figured out what to do, just like I did when I got to college, except she did it at 11 and I did it at 18."

  These kids shake up all of the most cherished mainline academic notions of how people learn. We can expect them to surprise and challenge us. One parent said that trying to keep up with their profoundly gifted child was like racing ninety miles an hour down the road in a chariot (with our children steering), our hair streaming behind us as we frantically try to read the road map as it flaps in the wild wind. We just want to know where we are going before we get there.

• Organization: You Say Your Child Is Scattered?
  

  I was surprised when a fellow classmate asked Octavian if he had any extra "blue books" to loan. A college junior, the young man had forgotten to bring one and needed it for the exam they were taking that day. Apparently my son was not the only one who needed someone to remind him to pack specific materials for specific days.

  I seem to bump into far more parents who ease their profoundly gifted children into college one class at a time than those entering their kids full time. Children as young as five have experienced college success with the attentive management of a parent. Homeschooling is such a hands-on type of educating that I do not balk at Octavian's need for my management. He is only thirteen and I have no problems with glancing at his course syllabus daily to remind him of his readings, or his papers, or his upcoming tests. Such tending would be part of our daily interaction if I were teaching him anyway.

  For those parents struggling with elementary school profoundly gifted children who can't seem to remember their homework and put off completing projects, the thought of college may seem like an impossibility. However, so many parents of highly gifted children seem to work through these issues regardless of the academic environment in which their children find themselves. The highly abstract thought processes of the gifted make them prone to distractibility, disorganization, and procrastination. These characteristics work both for the child and against him. Such traits make the child adept at dreaming, creating, inventing, and discovering while also making him scattered and often unable to follow through on tasks that lose their luster. How do such challenges pan out in college, where the academic stakes are much higher than in primary and secondary school?

  Rose Marie's son is nine. He uses a Palm Pilot. Even still, she says, "I think we probably are babying him too much. We make sure he has his homework not only in order, but copied in case a teacher or teacher's assistant loses it. I suspect he might be able to handle the organization on his own, so I should work to let him try to do that."

  Straddling the line between helping and helping too much can be tricky for parents. We want to see our kids succeed, yet want them to develop independence and self-direction. I believe each family is different and there is nothing to do but work through these issues as they come. Octavian asked me to attend his class with him throughout the semester and, with the professor's sanction, I did. Because I was privy to all of his assignments, I reminded him of them, checking the syllabus regularly to make sure that he was reading all of his homework on time. Octavian wanted to read every assignment in preparation for class and often asked me to check to make sure that he had done so.

  Will he need this much interaction from me this fall? I plan to spend his class time with his younger brother and sister, at the nearby public library. Octavian is ready to attend his fall classes alone. He will, by necessity, be more responsible for knowing his assignments and deadlines on his own. I am comfortable with such a gradual transition to more independence and responsibility.

  Such a transition is probably necessary and perhaps even painful for the regular students. Jill says, "There is a 'Learning Center' at the college which is set up for ALL college students who need help with organization-not just the 12-year-olds. What a concept! This is NOT just a young-student problem! Peter will meet with them weekly to learn ways to organize his time and take some of the burden off Mom."

  And then there are the families that follow tightly controlled schedules in order to meet deadlines and keep appointments. Helene says of Sasha, "Her schedule rivals that of any Silicone Valley executive. So she has to be organized to do all that SHE wants to do. Sasha has her daily piano practice, weekly lessons, written theory assignments, and 20 units of college courses including lab courses. She also goes to various storytelling gigs, opera rehearsals, and social engagements with friends, and volunteer work. She really has no time to waste!"

  How does Sasha keep up with that staggering schedule? "We put all her exam/quiz/important dates on the family calendar that I keep in the kitchen. She’s free to check everyone's responsibilities and commitments whenever she needs to," says Helene.

• Adult Subject Matter In Course Material
  

  One of the most common responses of professors and administrators at college seems to be, "how will the gifted child react to 'inappropriate' adult reading material in class?"

  We faced this question when we called the Latin literature professor to ask his permission for Octavian to take his class. His concern was for not only Octavian's response, but mine as well. How do you tell a stranger that your 12-year-old has been reading all manner of adult books since he was nine?

  Jill tried to explain just such a seeming improbability to the admissions department of the university to which Peter was applying, "If Peter has not read every book required in high school English, he has nevertheless read at least as many books as any incoming college freshman six years his senior. Many of Peter's books are written at a significantly higher level than those read by college students. He was reading at the level of a second-year graduate student by age seven. He has also read a wide variety of books, not just in the sciences and math. He has read philosophy, fiction, history, biography, and politics, largely self-directed. He devours books, and often cannot put one down until he finishes it. I have no worries about any deficit in literature hampering Peter in a college English class."

  A deficit is rarely the problem with these kids. Many were tackling advanced reading material so early that parents may find it hard to remember that other adults less familiar with profound giftedness behavior will not automatically assume their child is well-read. And, it can be equally difficult for us to fully paint the picture of our little ones reading our old college textbooks, tiny hands turning the pages in eager anticipation of the next juicy tidbit.

  Leila tells of her frustrations with this problem, "I made this argument two years ago with the college before I filed a class action law suit for age discrimination. I said Zane had read more than their average incoming freshman as a mean average, and probably more than the average of any ten of them. I argued that this level and volume of reading led to an understanding of some issues at a more adult level." She added, "They were also worried about an 8-year-old being exposed to 'concepts' that might not be age-appropriate in English classes."

  Adult themes are not only prevalent in English literature class. We faced the exact same issue when Octavian chose Latin literature for his first class at William and Mary. I assured the professor that Octavian had been reading about Rome and Greece for so many years that he barely flinched when he came to references to sensuality or violence. The professor seemed genuinely relieved to hear that Octavian had encountered such sensitive material under my care, and, therefore, I would not criticize him for exposing the same to my son.

  Perhaps every parent considering college for their profoundly gifted child needs to assess their position on the matter of adult themes in college literature. I have read of parents who monitor their child's reading and decide when the child will be allowed access to certain works. Highly personal and worthy of consideration, the issue is not whether or not the profoundly gifted child can read at an adult level, but should he. Only a parent, together with the child, can make that decision, and then choose classes accordingly.

The First Class...What Are Your Child's Options?
So, you have conquered the doubts and are considering that first college class? Great, on to the challenges of narrowing down your child's options. One of the problems of being profoundly gifted is the sheer variety of subjects that one finds fascinating. Such a gifted child may feel overwhelmed with all of the glorious options when he opens the course catalogue. How many classes did you say he could take at once? Better buy your chauffeur's license now and get set for lots of driving!

If you are confused about how to help your child pick his first class, the following three topics may help illuminate the perfect option for him: picking his favorite subject, enjoying a non-matriculating community college class, and taking a high school class at the college level.

Early college entrance is not a one-size-fits-all prospect. Every child is different and so is every family. These real-life stories may help you see where your child fits best.

• Handpick a Subject That Thrills Your Child
  

  Octavian has been studying ancient civilizations, with a concentration on Roman and Greek history for over three years. That meant many trips to the library for hundreds of books, countless hours spent on the sofa or my bed reading and reading, and extensive Internet searches for sources of information in the field. When he read the William and Mary course catalogue, he knew that he wanted to continue this serious research at the college level. After the dean of admissions suggested he choose a class taught by the chair of the classical studies department, he opted for Latin Literature. His time spent reading Ovid, Vergil, and Petronius broadened his perspectives of the culture and its history.

  Study the course catalogue carefully. Once your child has identified the course that sounds interesting to him, call the instructor and make an appointment to visit. Many parents recommend this first step in deciding whether or not a class is right for your child. Chatting with the professor about the material to be covered is a great way for your child to become acquainted with the professor's expectations. Check out the texts or books assigned to the course. The school's bookstore will carry the required reading list. Look it over carefully. Does the material appeal to your child?

  This fall Octavian wanted to take a senior-level class called "Age of Alexander." We not only asked the professor some key questions about course content, but we stopped by the college bookstore and checked out the required reading material. Octavian asked himself, "Does this class cover the campaigns of Alexander the Great?" "Does this class deal with his life, both military, and private?" Or, he wondered, "is it a more generalized sampling of Hellenistic civilization in the Middle East and Egypt?" The answers to these questions determined his decision regarding this class.

  Beverly recommends, "Choose a class that would excite your child. Meet with the Department Chairman for that class, letting your child meet him, too. Find out who will be the most exciting and challenging (read that 'interesting') professor, let him spend some time talking with that professor, and get a feel for what he is like. The professor should be excited about having your child in his class. Then sign him up for the class."

  She adds, "Meeting those in charge of the classes beforehand really helps break the ice and develop relationships prior to starting the class. Your child will walk into the class already friends with the professor, and that goes a very long way toward making these profoundly gifted kids feel comfortable!"

  Many parents seeking early college entrance for their highly gifted children are working hard to keep up with their children's demand for more challenging academic material. Their advice to other parents includes carefully choosing a first class that stimulates and captivates the profoundly gifted child. For some, this means a class that makes them stretch. For others, this means a class that is familiar, but harder than the level they are working on in school or at home.

  Beverly and Conner picked Spanish as his first college class, "Conner had been studying high school level Spanish with private tutors who were native speakers. The college class was wonderful for him. The instructor at the community college adored him and enjoyed his being in the class. Since the material was easy for him (his Latin I- Honors class with Northwestern University also had helped him with the grammar/structural part of Spanish immensely), it helped him to be able to focus on the classroom dynamics and become used to them. He was initially nervous the first couple of weeks in class. He was unsure of what to expect in the class, but after the 2nd week of class they held elections for officers of the Spanish Club. Conner was elected Treasurer. He felt accepted." She adds.

  Focusing on the environment and the social dynamic of a college class was challenging for nine-year-old Conner. Even though the subject matter of the course was familiar, he thrived in his first class. Some parents find such an approach eases their child into the college experience and helps to ensure their success in the young-adult environment.

  Conversely, the death knell for some profoundly gifted children seems to be boredom. Choosing a college class that makes them repeat information they already know may seem the "safe" choice for insuring success. But, with these kids, it could spell disaster. A normal child may get an "easy A" in a class that requires little work, but our kids are not normal!

  Helene advises, "Take what you really love. I've told Sasha that she can take anything. Sasha has all the time left in the world. College is not the world's land speed race!"

  Unencumbered by more traditional approaches to the order in which college classes are taken, our kids have more time to study subjects for the sheer enjoyment of them. Take a senior level history class just out of the starting gate? Why not? Astronomy for fun? Sure!

• Community College Classes That Don't Matriculate. . .Chinese Cooking Anyone?
  

  One of the coolest tricks I have heard for gaining college admission for young profoundly gifted kids comes from Cathy, "Community college in our state seems to be easier to get into than high school. Moira entered via a 'back door' -- an open enrollment theatre class/group -- at 8 (the director simply looked at her, commented 'The costumers are going to love you,' and went on about directing the play) and has since taken language courses, art, and a world history class..."

  Some community colleges are sticklers for adhering to their minimum age requirements and finding creative solutions to this problem may take some thought. Apparently one such loophole is whether or not the child is degree-seeking. Cathy found that their local community college's policy was, "...no questions asked; as long as she isn't in a degree program or seeking college credit, they only need an address and a social security number."

  What kind of classes could a profoundly gifted child find in a not-for-credit program? Cathy's daughter was, "taking classes that are not part of their associate degree program, like Italian I and Theatre (they also have Vegetarian Cooking, Knitting, etc.) and most of the people taking the classes are adults taking them for pleasure or in preparation for travel. The question of auditing, etc., didn't come up: she just signed up and paid a registration fee."

  The courses not listed with attendant credit hours fit the bill when it comes to this type of community college entrance. The credit hours are noted in the course catalogue as numbers beside the name of the course. Many community colleges offer adult enrichment classes that have no such credit-hour designation. My eleven-year-old son, Antony plans to take a computer basics class like this in the fall through a university's program called "Center For Community Learning."

• Double Duty: Pick A Core High School Subject And Get College Credit, Too
  

  Some parents consider college classes to be a continuation of homeschooling for their profoundly gifted children. In their book, Gifted Children at Home, Janice Baker, Kathleen Julicher, and Maggie Hogan encourage the use of college classes as viable substitutes for high school classes. One of the authors writes, "Seth began taking college math at age twelve, and, being the bright and competitive homeschooled kid that he was, he quickly became the top student in the class...his college class counted for high school credit and I no longer had to worry about staying one step ahead of him in the book." (Baker 2001, page 15)

  Often, the highly gifted child exceeds his parents' ability to teach him, especially in math and the sciences. You can't teach your child the calculus he craves at ten? I'll bet you didn't expect to face that so quickly. College classes provide the perfect venue for an a la carte approach to subjects. The child takes only what he wants or needs. And, in many states, the college classes accomplished while in high school count not only toward the child's graduation, but also toward a college degree.

  Helene explains that her daughter, Sasha, took a math class at a local college as her first class. "She first matriculated there when she was 11.5. It was entirely her decision to go. The college has had loads of experience with young gifted homeschoolers. So she certainly wasn't the first nor will she be the last! Because she's young, we don't have to pay tuition - just the fees, parking permit, and cost for books and materials. Because we're homeschoolers, my R-4 affidavit was sufficient. Because Sasha was "under age" I had to fill out a form stating that the reason my daughter wanted to take class ___, class ____, class _____ was that Border School, our homeschool, didn't offer them. Then I had to sign the form as both parent and principal. So no tests, IQ's or other stuff required."

  Not all colleges or school systems are as welcoming to the radically accelerated student. David's daughter had to take a placement test in order to convince the schools to let her take community college classes as part of a high school program.

  Author of the book, And the Skylark Sings With Me, David Albert, tells of a recent experience with his local school system, "We've just had a run in (now finally resolved!) with the school district. My older one -- now 13 -- wants to do 'Running Start' - Washington's program for allowing high school 'juniors' to do courses at the local community college, but you have to do it through the local high school. The 'guidance counselor' (a misnomer if ever I've met one) at the local high school was not happy, to say the least (why, I don't know -- they actually make a little money on the deal.) Especially when we marched in with a copy of the law that does not restrict the program by age. 'Ah, but she has to be a junior.' So we brought in her Internet Academy transcript, showing she had finished all of her high school math, her registration from her first advanced placement test, her work in Latin (a correspondence course through the University of Colorado), and her reading list for the past six months, which included papers on Ibsen, Tolstoy, and Samuel Barber, and her prize-winning poems. We also brought in her SAT-I's (top 5% of entering college freshman), and evidence to the fact that she had the highest verbal score in the state two years running on the Johns Hopkins gifted kids' test."

  "No luck," David said.

  David continues, "So we cornered a very sheepish assistant principal. He didn't like being in this position. So he said, 'well, have her go take the placement exams at the Community College.' (now, mind you, all she wanted to take was chemistry!) I think he was hoping she'd flunk them and the problem would go away. Well, he ended up with a different problem -- she not only passed, but passed out of all pre-requisite (first year) courses at the Community College! Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins awarded her a free course at a private college in Washington. So, she was admitted to the second year of college and was awarded a scholarship from Johns Hopkins, but didn't qualify for 11th grade!"

Come on in, the water's fine!
Whether your child chooses a core high school curriculum course, a new subject he's been wanting to study, or an unusual class that simply strikes his fancy, your profoundly gifted child will continue to demonstrate his amazing abilities, challenge your resourcefulness, and shine, shine, shine.

We know how special our kids are, and we know that they need academic stimulation almost as much as they need love.

It remains for us to advocate on their behalf in a world that segregates educational opportunity by age, in order to ensure their access to the classes they need, the stimulation they crave, and the actualization of the dreams they hold dear.

How can you become an effective advocate for your child? Find support for yourself, first. Parenting these kids isn't easy. Join an online support group, read the stories of other parents, and see your family's experiences echoed in their words and gain courage from their success.

Early college for profoundly gifted kids does work. If we can do it, so can you!

Author's Note: This article contains the actual experiences of real parents of profoundly gifted children across the country. At the publisher's request, names of minors have been changed to protect their privacy.

References

Baker, Janice, Julicher, Kathleen, Hogan, Maggie, Gifted Children at Home: A Practical Guide for Homeschooling Families, The Gifted Group Publishing, DE 2001.

Gross, Miraca U.M. PhD, "From 'the saddest sound' to the D Major chord: The gift of accelerated progression." Keynote address 3rd Biennial Australasian International Conference on the Education of Gifted Students. Melbourne, Australia. 15 August 1999.

Gross, Miraca. 1994. Radical Acceleration: Responding to academic and social needs of extremely gifted adolescents. The Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, Vol. V, Number 4, Summer.

Hollingworth, Leta, Children Above 180 IQ (Stanford Binet) Arno Press, NY 1975.

Jacobsen, Mary-Elaine Psy.D, The Gifted Adult: A Revolutionary Guide for Liberating Everyday Genius, Ballantine Books, NY 1999.

Stephens, Challen, "He's only 12, but that's no knock against this freshman already in college. Wood well on his way to becoming a doctor."The Huntsville Times, June, 18, 2001.

Tolan, Stephanie S., "Helping Your Highly Gifted Child." ERIC EC Digest #E477 1990.